1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a device for monitoring the amount of food and/or other consumables consumed by an animal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Animal obesity, especially in pets, has become a developing problem. Statistics indicate that between 10% and 40% of pets seen by veterinarians are overweight or obese. Animal medicine has indicated that the condition of obesity is a precursor to a number of health problems for animals, and veterinarians are actively working to reduce the occurrence of this condition in animals. Additionally, Pfizer Animal Health recently announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved SLENTROL® (dirlotapide), a drug used in the safe and effective management of canine obesity, making the drug the first and only veterinary-approved obesity drug for dogs in the United States. In other efforts to combat animal obesity, animal food manufacturers have introduced a number of “lite” animal foods that are intended to be used in combination with feeding and exercise programs. Additionally, there is an extensive number of websites dedicated to feeding programs based on animal types, breeds, and sizes.
Despite the above-discussed efforts, animal obesity is still a problem and still on the rise. One of the primary reasons for the failure of the above-discussed feeding programs is that the animal's owners do not adhere to the parameters of the program. Further, the owner's lack of adherence is not due to lack of intent or will on the owner's part, but is largely unintentional. For example, in a multi-person household, each person is likely to fill a pet's food bowl when it is empty, assuming that the pet has not been fed. Or, conversely, each person may refrain from filling the pet's food bowl with the thought that the pet has already been fed. Accordingly, the problem is that each person in the household is not aware of whether the pet has been fed. Additionally, each person is unaware of how much food the pet has consumed within a given time period. This lack of conveyance of information relating to the animal's feeding activities is the primary cause of the above-discussed lack of adherence to the feeding program. Consequently, a device that indicates the amount of food consumed by an animal during a given time period is desired.